Comments on eclectic / eccentric: Sunday Salon: Allusions to Other Books

I love being in on things like that too!

2012-01-17T16:50:58.599-06:00

I love being in on things like that too!

I love it too. It leads me to read other books. Wh...

2012-01-17T14:29:13.182-06:00

I love it too. It leads me to read other books. Whenever I have already read the book they refer to I feel like I'm in on something with the author.

You just keep reminding me I need to read the whol...

2012-01-17T09:02:51.537-06:00

You just keep reminding me I need to read the whole Fforde series! :) His allusions are so much more subtle, sometimes not even mentioning the name of the book, so I can definitely see how you'd want more familiarity with them than you need with Udolpho in NA.

It depends on the book, honestly. With Northang...

2012-01-16T20:42:54.619-06:00
It depends on the book, honestly. With Northanger Abbey, I didn't feel that I was missing out on much by not having read Udolpho -- for me it was enough to know that the main character's reading habits lean toward the gothic and dramatic, and that she's young enough to be dramatically affected by those books.

But with books like Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series (Yes, I'm mentioning it again; if you want me to stop, quit posting about stuff that brings the series to mind :D), where so many books are mentioned...that was a harder series to read without feeling like I needed to read all the books to which Fforde alluded.

In general, an author doesn't mention such things without good reason. The character is reading a specific book, or the author alludes to a certain book, because it's important to the story. So you're probably always going to get a full experience if you've read the books-mentioned-in-other-books. It's a slippery slope, though, so you have to draw the line somewhere. :) Guess that's the hard part.

I need to read Lolita soon, but I've been cons...

2012-01-16T19:43:26.720-06:00
I need to read Lolita soon, but I've been considering going for the audio since so many people seem to love that version.

I do remember that about Thirteenth Tale now! I ha...

2012-01-16T19:42:46.374-06:00
I do remember that about Thirteenth Tale now! I haven't read that one in years.....

It's a seriously great word, isn't it?

2012-01-16T19:42:20.151-06:00
It's a seriously great word, isn't it?

My book club read Reading Lolita in Tehran a numbe...

2012-01-16T15:04:30.950-06:00
My book club read Reading Lolita in Tehran a number of years ago. Some of them had read Lolita and it seemed like they got more out of the book and/or had a different experience of the book as compared to those of us who had not read Lolita. It sparked my interest in Lolita but I have to admit I still have not read it!

Depends on the novel. You know I read Udolpho bec...

2012-01-16T08:46:58.211-06:00
Depends on the novel. You know I read Udolpho because of NA, and now I need to re-read NA, because of Udolpho. I don't think we need to read those novels first, or all of them, but maybe a few and then re-read where we heard them. I felt this way with the Thirteenth Tale by Settlefield. She mentioned so many books, it was hard and ridiculous to keep track. If anything, it reminds how wonderful older books are.

I'm in Jenners' camp...I'd go mad if I...

2012-01-15T21:46:32.612-06:00
I'm in Jenners' camp...I'd go mad if I I tried to keep a list, let alone read all the books!

And intertextuality? Wow...who knew there was a word for it?

I've thought about doing that with Reading Lol...

2012-01-15T20:13:17.445-06:00
I've thought about doing that with Reading Lolita as well. I refuse to read it until I read Lolita, but now I know there are a ton of other books mentioned!

I love that "zing" as you say!

2012-01-15T20:12:35.133-06:00
I love that "zing" as you say!

I do love books that allude to books. I especiall...

2012-01-15T18:31:19.430-06:00
I do love books that allude to books. I especially love it when I know the book mentioned. In the book Domestic Violets, for example, the narrator makes a passing reference to a picture book about a penguin and I practically shouted, "OH MY GOD!!! I KNOW WHAT BOOK HE'S TALKING ABOUT!!! I LOVE THAT BOOK!!!" It was ridiculous, really.

Sometimes it does make me want to rush out and read the book. One of my Reading Plans is to read (or reread) all the books in mentioned in Reading Lolita in Tehran and then reread Reading Lolita in Tehran. (This has been a Reading Plan for a while now. Maybe some day I'll get to it.)

Ahhh, books mentioning books. Good, nerdy fun :)

I absolutely love books that mention other books! ...

2012-01-15T17:57:28.100-06:00
I absolutely love books that mention other books! If I have read them, I get that little "zing" of serendipity: "I know what they're talking about!" If I haven't read them, I look into them to see if I should. :)

The trick is knowing when you need to have read th...

2012-01-15T17:14:17.700-06:00
The trick is knowing when you need to have read the original (or the referenced books)...and I'm clearly not good at that since I know so very little about a book going into it. I've actually read "reimaginings" without reading the original because I didn't know the book was based on another book!

I seem to feel that way about half the time. Must ...

2012-01-15T17:12:11.993-06:00
I seem to feel that way about half the time. Must be a mood thing - or maybe it's the talent of the author making you wish you had read the books or just want to read the books....

LOL! I felt like that in the beginning since I lov...

2012-01-15T17:11:31.686-06:00
LOL! I felt like that in the beginning since I love SFF so much but hadn't read half of what she's mentioning.

Despite the fact I am not done with Among Others, ...

2012-01-15T17:11:01.262-06:00
Despite the fact I am not done with Among Others, I can easily say that both it and Northanger Abbey are definitely worth reading!

Okay, so I definitely need to get up on this Wimse...

2012-01-15T17:10:29.014-06:00
Okay, so I definitely need to get up on this Wimsey business...

I'm so ignorant I don't know anything abou...

2012-01-15T17:09:53.310-06:00
I'm so ignorant I don't know anything about Wimsey and Vane. :)

For some books, I feel like it helps to have read ...

2012-01-15T16:55:05.739-06:00
For some books, I feel like it helps to have read the book if it is key to knowing the plot (like Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me). Otherwise, I don't really "take the bait." You can go mad doing that!

Oh, definitely! I always feel like I'm missing...

2012-01-15T16:30:50.488-06:00
Oh, definitely! I always feel like I'm missing something if I haven't read the book. And when I have it's so awesome that by contrast NOT having read the books is just depressing!

Northanger Abbey definitely listed some intriguing...

2012-01-15T15:58:31.664-06:00
Northanger Abbey definitely listed some intriguing books.

Trish - It's funny you mention Reading Lolita ...

2012-01-15T15:57:49.525-06:00
Trish - It's funny you mention Reading Lolita in Tehran since that's one I've been putting off until I read Lolita! And I don't know why I couldn't just reply to your post. :)

Making lists of books is almost as much fun as act...

2012-01-15T15:54:27.557-06:00
Making lists of books is almost as much fun as actually reading books. :)